After 22 years, he is finally calling it quits. Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock announced on Friday morning that he is retiring from coaching after 22 years. He will now move into a consultant role in the Stars organization.
For the second time in the past year, the Dallas Stars will need to hire a new head coach. That’s because on Friday morning, Ken Hitchcock officially announced his retirement from coaching.
After 22 seasons as a head coach spanning across four NHL franchises (including two stints with the Stars), Hitchcock is finally calling it quits. This comes after spending just one season of a second stint with Dallas this year.
Though the Stars only missed the playoffs by three points, they had every opportunity to keep themselves in the race with a star-studded lineup and couldn’t get the job done. However much of that is on Hitch is uncertain, but it still calls for more offseason change.
When Hitchcock agreed to return to Dallas last April after an abysmal season for the Stars, he signed a three-year contract that only guaranteed him as head coach for one year. The other two years were undetermined, giving both the management and Hitch, who is now 66 years old, an opportunity to constantly evaluate.
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After a successful first stint in Dallas from the 95-96 season to the 01-02 season that saw the Stars win a Stanley Cup, qualify for the Final twice, and appear in the postseason five times. Hitch returned for a second run (and was, oddly enough, introduced to the media on April 13, 2017). He led Dallas to a 42-32-8 record with 92 points and helped players like Tyler Seguin and John Klingberg reach new levels in their game.
But the record came with an 0-6-2 skid in the month of March that bumped the Stars from the playoff race. Dallas couldn’t seem to find a way to save themselves and fell out of contention entirely when it mattered most. At the end of the day, that simply cannot happen with the lineup they have, regardless of the situation.
Hitchcock felt as though it was best to step down and move on to a new role so he could open up the floor for the younger generation of coaching.
He will not leave the benches without some pretty incredible records, though. Hitch finishes his career with a record of 823-506-207 and earned the title of third-winningest NHL coach of all time this season with Dallas. He was a head coach for Team Canada as well on multiple occasions and will go down as one of the most successful coaches in NHL history.
Hitchcock penned a letter to Dallas Stars fans and hockey fans in general that was released this morning when the retirement was announced.
22 years. What a career. pic.twitter.com/wJe60MUdGA
— Blackout Dallas (@BlackoutDallas) April 13, 2018
And with that, the Stars must now dive back into the coaching market. The search is expected to begin immediately and this hire could be the one that defines GM Jim Nill’s future with the team.
We’d like to offer congratulations to Hitchcock on a career well done and thank him for all he’s done for the Dallas Stars organization. He was influential in putting hockey on the map in Texas and will be missed by the entire NHL.
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And with that being said, let the search begin.